Dolphins To Outswim Corporate Sharks, Consultant Says

Day of the dolpins

Although sharks dominate the competitive waters of corporate America, a new breed of executive is rising to the surface.

Dolphins - who are team players - will replace the tyrannical sharks in top management by the year 2000, predicts Connie Glaser, a consultant based in Atlanta.

Innovative companies are finding that consensus-building better motivates workers than commanding and controlling them, Glaser said. She spoke in Orlando this week to a gathering of AT&T Corp. women executives.

Women, in particular, can benefit from this approach to supervising employees because it suits their communication and nurturing skills, Glaser said. They don't have to emulate sharks to succeed in business, which is what they have been advised in the past.

That school of thought, also described in Glaser's book Swim with the Dolphins, spins off the popular 1980s text, Swim with the Sharks. (Her 1995 book will be available in paperback this week).

''This is a style that comes naturally to women,'' Glaser said. Her book, subtitled How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on Their Own Terms, is awash with examples of female executives who have balanced toughness with caring. They include Maggie Elliott, senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, Calif.

Organized sports and the military have conditioned many men to use a top-down method to deal with the work force, she said, but some men favor the dolphin style of leadership.

Even traditional executives such as Jack Welch of General Electric Co. realize that barking orders to the minions fails to buoy the bottom line, Glaser said. Giving employees attention and input results in greater productivity and profit, she said.